The present disclosure generally relates to semiconductor devices, and more particularly relates to magnetoresistive random access memory.
Spin-transfer torque magnetoresistive random access memory (STT-MRAM) devices offer many benefits over semiconductor-based memories such as dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and static random-access memory (SRAM). In order to compete with DRAM and SRAM, the STT-MRAM devices usually need to be integrated into the wiring layers of standard silicon logic and memory chips. However, one difficult aspect of this integration is to align the MRAM device to a landing pad layer in cases where both the MRAM device and landing pad are small and of similar dimensions. In this case, the MRAM device may be damaged by topography from the landing pad due to misalignment of the MRAM lithography and the landing pad lithography.